Chapter 4 - Relational Databases

Question 1

database

Answer 1

A set of interrelated, centrally coordinated data files that are stored with as little data redundancy as possible.

Question 2

database management system (DBMS)

Answer 2

The program that manages and controls the data and the interfaces between the data and the application programs that use the data stored in the database.

Question 3

database system

Answer 3

The database, the DBMS, and the application programs that access the database through the DBMS.

Question 4

database administrator (DBA)

Answer 4

The person responsible for coordinating, controlling, and managing the database.

Question 5

online transaction processing database (OLTP)

Answer 5

Database containing detailed current transaction data, usually in third normal form. Focuses on throughput, speed,availability,concurrency, and recoverability. Often used concurrently by hundreds of users.

Question 6

data warehouse

Answer 6

Very large databases containing detailed and summarized data for a number of years that are used for analysis rather than transaction processing.

Question 7

business intelligence

Answer 7

Analyzing large amounts of data for strategic decision making.

Question 8

online analytical processing (OLAP)

Answer 8

Using queries to investigate hypothesized relationships among data.

Question 9

data mining

Answer 9

Using sophisticated statistical analysis to “discover” unhypothesized relationships in the data.

Question 10

record layout

Answer 10

Document that shows the items stored in a file, including the order and length of the data fields and the type of data stored.

Question 11

logical view

Answer 11

How people conceptually organize, view, and understand the relationships among data items.

Question 12

physical view

Answer 12

The way data are physically arranged and stored in the computer system.

Question 13

schema

Answer 13

A description of the data elements in a database, the relationships among them, and the logical model used to organize and describe the data.

Question 14

conceptual-level schema

Answer 14

The organization-wide view of the entire database that lists all data elements and the relationships between them.

Question 15

external-level schema

Answer 15

An individual user’s view of portions of a database; also called a subschema.

Question 16

subschema

Answer 16

A subset of the schema; the way the user defines the data and the data relationships.

Question 17

internal-level schema

Answer 17

A low-level view of the entire database describing how the data are actually stored and accessed.

Question 18

access rights

Answer 18

Permissions granted to create, read, update,and delete data, database records, or data files.

Question 19

data dictionary

Answer 19

Information about the structure of the database, including a description of each data element.
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Question 20

data definition language (DDL)

Answer 20

DBMS language that builds the data dictionary, creates the database, describes logical views, and specifies record or field security constraints.

Question 21

structured query language (SQL)

Answer 21

Standardized commercial programming language designed for managing data in relational database systems. Even though it is standardized,variations exist among different database systems.

Question 22

data manipulation language (DML)

Answer 22

DBMS language that changes database content, including data element creations, updates, insertions, and deletions.

Question 23

data query language (DQL)

Answer 23

High-level, English-like, DBMS language that contains powerful, easy-to-use commands that enable users to retrieve, sort, order, and display data.

Question 24

report writer

Answer 24

DBMS language that simplifies report creation.

Question 25

data model

Answer 25

An abstract representation of database contents.

Question 26

relational data model

Answer 26

A two-dimensional table representation of data; each row represents a unique entity (record) and each column is a field where record attributes are stored.

Question 27

tuple

Answer 27

A row in a table that contains data about a specific item in a database table.

Question 28

primary key

Answer 28

Database attribute, or combination of attributes, that uniquely identifies each row in a table.

Question 29

foreign key

Answer 29

An attribute in a table that is also a primary key in another table; used to link the two tables.
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Question 30

update anomaly

Answer 30

Improper database organization where a non-primary key item is stored multiple times; updating the item in one location and not the others causes data inconsistencies.

Question 31

insert anomaly

Answer 31

Improper database organization that results in the inability to add records to a database.

Question 32

delete anomaly

Answer 32

Improper organization of a database that results in the loss of all information about an entity when a row is deleted.

Question 33

relational database

Answer 33

A database built using the relational data model.

Question 34

entity integrity rule

Answer 34

A non-null primary key ensures that every row in a table represents something and that it can be identified.

Question 35

referential integrity rule

Answer 35

Foreign keys which link rows in one table to rows in another table must have values that correspond to the value of a primary key in another table.

Question 36

normalization

Answer 36

Following relational database creation rules to design a relational database that is free from delete, insert, and update anomalies.

Question 37

semantic data modeling

Answer 37

Using knowledge of business processes and information needs to create a diagram that shows what to include in a fully normalized database (in 3NF).